For the Reporter
Rainier Middle School students recently captured the Association of Space Explorers AstroSat Challenge.
As part of a national contest designed for high school students, science teacher Jennifer Muscolo challenged her seventh-grade students to develop an experiment to submit to the challenge.
The group studied components of the arduino-based nano-telemetry satellite and submitted their idea on how to best use this technology.
After studying its specifications and the available ArduSat sensors, the class ultimately voted on the idea to use the satellite to detect volcano and landslide risk in light of the recent Oso Landslide. It was submitted for the competition and selected as one of only 15 chosen from throughout the country.
The students dubbed themselves the Pantherduinos and worked for approximately four weeks learning the various sensors available on the satellite. ArduSat will be sending the class a space kit, including an Arduino computer, so students can perform the necessary computer programming, trial runs, as well as fine tune their experimental plans.
The next step in the contest is to test the programming and remotely control the ArduSat to make detections for risk, which will be on a polar orbit approximately 400 miles from the surface of the Earth. The Pantherduinos will be coordinating their efforts from their classroom remotely with ArduSat Utah and Colorado sometime in January.
“This shows our youth just how much they can do with if they get together, create an idea and apply themselves,” Muscolo said.
The contest is sponsored by Ardusat, an education technology company that provides the opportunity to connect the universe to the classroom. Over the next year, results of the 15 experiments from the groups across the country will be highlighted on the Ardusat website.